One hundred years ago, November 1918, saw the debut of Gasoline Alley. So in this celebratory centennial of Gasoline Alley, the oldest comic strip still in new production (is Jim Scancarelli still producing new material?), comics historian Allan Holtz has a shocking new revelation. Updating the history of Chic Jackson’s Roger Bean comic strip Allan […]

An original 1936 original art piece by Belgian cartoonist Herge for a Tintin comic has fetched $1.2 million at a Hong Kong auction. According to the BBC, it is the only original from the book The Blue Lotus. The Asian people do take their cartoon art seriously.

King Features celebrates 100 years in syndication this year. During the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards weekend, they paneled a session on comic history at the Library of Congress. Here’s the video of that discussion.

As of today, you can start reading Johnny Hart’s B.C. from the very first comic (see below) over on GoComics. The reboot of the comic is being called Back to B.C. The current story-line B.C. by Johnny’s grandson Mason Mastroianni is still available too.

King Features is celebrating its 100th year this November by printing and distributing a full-color collectable supplement to newspapers. The supplement will be 16 broadsheet pages with comics through its long history along with articles about the strips. I’ll let you know more details when they become available.

Charles Brubaker has posted a fascinating piece over at Cartoon Research about the 1980’s ?The Fantastic Funnies? television show wherein actress Loni Anderson, best known for WKRP in Cincinnati, introduces and talks to cartoon characters from newspaper comics of the day. Here’s the intro video. Charles has posted seven other YouTube videos from that program […]

So a really cool thing is in the works – not just in the works, it is happening this January. National Cartoonists Society Foundation President Steve McGarry has organized a week-long Caribbean Cartoonist Celebrity Cruise. These aren’t just B-rated or has-been cartoonist “celebrities”, we’re talking four Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonists (two of which have been […]

From Gambit: Bunny Matthews, who created the quintessential comic-strip Yats “Vic and Nat’ly” in 1982, announced today in a Facebook post that he is suffering from brain cancer. Matthews, whose cartoons appeared in Gambit for years (along with every other local publication), has provoked, skewered and amused the New Orleans arts, music and media communities […]

The Wall Street Journal profiles Jules Feiffer, how he got into cartooning and how at age 86, he’s still going strong drawing graphic novels. I began drawing at age 3, and the more I drew, the better I became. I soon discovered that if I took this skill out in the street using chalk, the […]

The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco will lose its current space in June after a lease ends. From the San Francisco Chronicle: The institution, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, has to vacate its home in downtown San Francisco after its longtime lease ends in June, but it has not yet found a new […]

Brian Walker, comic historian, author and son of Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker, posted the first week of proposed strips to be included in the 1950 launch of the iconic comic, but three of the strips were rejected by the syndicate and were never published. Here’s the first one. Head over to Beetle Bailey to […]

Posted on: Apr 13, 2015,
Section: Comic history, Comic strips, Comments: Comments Off on Check out the very first Beetle Bailey strip. And it was rejected

Tina’s Groove creator Rina Piccolo has a fascinating find: Picture this. A monk. A monk in a high tower. In the monk?s hand is a writing instrument that today would be found behind glass in a museum. What?s this lonesome scribe writing? There?s parchment on the unevenly carved desk in front of him, and on […]

Prolific cartoonist and illustrator Roy Doty passed away this morning at the age of 92. The one and only time I met Roy was in 2006 when I visited the Ohio State University Cartoon Library (Now Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum). At 84, he told me he was working full-time and was so busy […]

Astérix co-creator Albert Uderzo donated a storyboard from the 1971 Astérix and the Laurel Wreath for auction. From The New York Times: PARIS ? An original Astérix comic book page fetched 150,000 euros, or about $160,000, at a sale at Christie?s here, with all the proceeds going to the families of those killed in the […]